


The Next Great Adventure

by sundancekid



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2007-08-21
Updated: 2007-08-21
Packaged: 2017-11-10 05:09:19
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,071
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/462534
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sundancekid/pseuds/sundancekid
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>He helped save the world, and he figures he's earned a year's peace before braving the real world, again.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Next Great Adventure

After the Welcoming Feast, Dean and Neville slowly climb the stairs to Gryffindor Tower, happily full. The Feast seemed better than ever, this year.

Neville stops short in front of the painting of the Fat Lady. A gaggle of first-years stand staring up at them -- had they ever really been that small?

"Dean," Neville whispers, "I forgot the password." He glances down at the Head Boy badge on his chest. "That's bad, right?"

"Password's 'victorious,'" Dean says, grinning. McGonagall told him, at the Feast ("in case being made Head Boy has not improved Mr. Longbottom's memory," she'd explained). The Fat Lady swings open, and the tiny first-years clamber in.

At the top of the stairs, the new sign says _eighth years_. Dean and Neville grin at one another, flop down on their beds (only two, this year) and promptly fall asleep.

\-----

Luna's sitting on the floor, reading a book (right side up, Dean notices), outside the Defense Against the Dark Arts classroom. At the approach of Dean and Neville, she looks up.

"Hello, Dean! Neville!" she says, smiling brightly. In the weeks and months they spent together, Dean noticed that while Luna doesn't smile often, when she does it's real, and bright, and it lights up her whole being from the inside. She's not _plain_ , exactly, because she doesn't look like anybody else, but when she smiles she seems transformed, beautiful.

"I didn't see you on the train," Dean says. "Didn't realize you were coming back."

"Well," Luna says, carefully marking her place in the her book, "I still have seventh year -- and much of sixth, really. And I just don't feel that I've learned everything there is to know, yet. I was worried about leaving Daddy," she adds, "but Mrs. Weasley has agreed to check on him, keep him company, since they're so nearby."

Dean came back this year because, well, he wasn't sure what else he wanted to do, and after a year's hard camping, he wanted the home comforts of Hogwarts. He could have stayed with his mother, but even after all that happened, this is his world. He helped save the world, and he figures he's earned a year's peace before braving the real world, again.

"Great," Neville says. "It'll be good to see some friendly faces, since I'm feeling a little silly being back for an eighth year, but, well, I really want that Herbology N.E.W.T."

"What," Dean says, sliding down the wall to sit next to Luna, "killing Voldemort's snake with a sword doesn't exempt you from standardized testing?"

Neville and Luna start to laugh, and the three of them don't stop laughing until the rest of the class shows up.

\-----

Dean makes the Quidditch team -- Ginny's captain, this year, and Dean spent quite a bit of time at Shell Cottage practicing, since there wasn't a whole lot else to do.

Luna commentates their first match -- she actually flies really well, Dean learned last year, but she can't stay focused long enough. Keen eye for the Snitch, though ("Well," Luna had explained, "Gulping Plimpies are very small, and move very fast, so I have a lot of practice").

"Captaining for Gryffindor is Ginny Weasley," Luna says. "She's very nice, and always hexes people who are mean to other people. She's dating Harry Potter, who led us to victory over Voldemort last year, as you may remember.

"Dean Thomas is flying Chaser today," she adds. "He's really very nice. We spent several months together, after we were freed from Malfoy Manor by Dobby, the house elf, and we never fought, not once, and he never called me 'Loony.' He draws very well."

"Ms. Lovegood," McGonagall interjects, "this is all fascinating and informative, but we are watching a Quidditch match. Can we get back to the matter at hand?"

"Of course," Luna says agreeably. "Dean's just scored, oh, Dean, good for you! He's just used the Sloth Grip Roll, we practiced that for ages last year, I'm so glad it worked! Gryffindor thirty, Hufflepuff zero."

High up on his broom, Dean waves down to Luna, grinning. She waves back happily, never pausing in her warning about the dangers Nargles can inflict on an unsuspecting Quidditch team.

\-----

McGonagall doesn't go any easier on him for all that's happened; it's only the second class before she reminds him that this is a N.E.W.T. class, Mr. Thomas, and if you can't do a Vanishing spell you had better get practicing because I don't have time for this. In Charms, though, Flitwick seems softer, and the essays are shorter, the points awarded more generous. It's just enough celebrity to make life more pleasant without having to feel weird about it, Dean decides, and Neville agrees.

They're devoting most of Defense Against the Dark Arts to a blow-by-blow retelling of the battle at Hogwarts ("the Battle OF Hogwarts," Padma Patil insists. "Sounds more impressive that way"), and of course those who fought in it are expected to add to the recounting, sometimes with demonstrations. Luna goes into wandlore, as it pertains to capturing another wizard's wand, and Dean demonstrates Shield Charms, and Neville gets to give his spiel about Herbology's role in fighting.

Their new professor (Hestia Jones this year, and Dean fervently hopes she gets to stay many more years) sets up her classroom much like the old Room of Requirement when the D.A. met there -- spacious, good books on the shelves, lots of pillows for Stunning. She adds a wall with pictures of great Aurors and those who died fighting in the Battle of Hogwarts, adults and students alike, and Neville brings a picture of his parents. That's the day Dean finds out what happened to them, and all he can say is, "Blimey, mate," which doesn't say much, really.

Luna, her silvery eyes wide and misty, takes Neville's hands in her own and says, "They're proud of you, Neville." Neville tears up, and Dean stares at Luna, who has managed, as always, to say exactly the right thing.

\-----

When Luna signs up to stay at Hogwarts over Christmas, Dean asks why.

"Well," she says, passing the sheet to a third-year, "Daddy's off to Sweden -- there've been lots of sightings of the Crumple-Horned Snorkack, and I'd like to go, but he might be gone quite some time. I'm just glad he's feeling better."

"Come stay with me and Gran," Neville says. "Dean's going to come by, too."

"Really?" Luna asks, and her smile is like the lights on the Christmas trees. "Oh, Neville, I'd like that so much! No one's ever invited me to visit. What should I bring? Does your gran like Gurdyroot juice?"

"Uh, sure," Neville says, grinning at Dean.

Christmas with Dean's family is always a loud affair. Between his sisters, aunts, uncles, and cousins, there are always at least twenty-five people crowded into his grandparents' flat, everyone talking and laughing at once, Christmas carols playing in the background. He plays gin rummy with his littlest cousins and lets his aunts hug him extra hard, since he couldn't come last year (the adults all know he' s a wizard, and the older cousins too, but not the little ones, since they'd never manage to keep it a secret, and when they ask, Dean just tells them he got sick). His haul is better than usual, and he gets some really quality charcoals and colored pencils, and he thinks about how he can't wait to show Luna, who'd expressed interest in Muggle drawing materials.

His mother gives him an easel, ordered, somehow, from a magical art supply shop, so that it shrinks to fit into his bag and expands to whatever size needed. When Dean looks up at her from where's he sitting, on the floor by the tree, surrounded by wrapping paper, she simply smiles. "I wanted to get you something useful," she explains. "So I figured out that owl business."

Dean hugs his mother till she protests that he's squeezing too hard. "I missed you last year, Deanybaby," she tells him, patting his cheek. "I'm glad you're back, and what's more, I'm glad you're safe." Dean just hugs her even harder. He is glad he's home, glad he's Muggle-born, glad he's here.

Boxing Day, he Apparates to Neville's, for another feast. Mrs. Longbottom is still a very severe woman, but she's lightened up considerably in light of how pleased she is with how Neville's turned out. She goes on at length about the Ministry, and the changes she does and doesn't approve of, and they start taking bets on how long before Harry's Minister of Magic.

"Five years," Neville says.

"Ten," Dean argues. "He'll want to spend some time as an Auror first."

"As soon as Kingsley retires," Mrs. Longbottom pronounces. "And that'll be next year or so -- poor man, he's exhausted, top-to-bottom rehaul he's doing."

"Oh, I don't think Harry wants to be Minister," Luna says, surprising all of them, since she'd been staring at the ceiling, apparently not listening. "But Hermione Granger will want to, someday. She does like to be in charge of things. I say twenty years, which will still make her youngest Minister ever."

They all stare, and Mrs. Longbottom finally says, "Well, girl, you do beat all, don't you?"

Luna looks up at her, large, pale eyes wide open. "I think that was a compliment. If so, thank you."

They all laugh, Neville pours more butterbeer, and Luna launches into a story about the year Wrackspurts tried to steal her Christmas tree, and they all laugh even harder, even Luna.

\-----

Neville's been spending more and more evenings down in the greenhouses with Sprout, working on some independent study project, and Dean finds himself lonely, sometimes. He hangs out in the common room, teaching Gobstones to first years, playing Exploding Snap with third years, and talking Quidditch with his teammates, and occasionally he does his homework, but the last year has made him a little jittery, and sometimes he just wants some quiet time with people who understand.

Ginny's good for conversation, but her life is mostly outside the castle, Dean knows, and in some ways she's just marking time this year. So is he, in his own way.

He's not really sad -- being on the run for nearly a year, being kidnapped, tends to finish off moping about your ex. She's happy now, he can tell (everyone can tell, it's all over the papers, _Witch Weekly_ 's always claiming she and Harry secretly got married over the most recent Hogsmeade weekend), and it was never going to work out, anyway. Ginny's always going and going, she hardly ever wanted to just sit and be; Dean likes the quiet life, himself.

He wanders up to the Owlery with a letter for Seamus (not having Seamus this year has been hard; Neville's always good to hang out with but he misses Seamus' practical, dirty mind), and runs into Luna, tying a letter to a school screech owl.

"Hello, Dean," she says.

"What's going on?" he asks, as Luna watches the owl fly away, seemingly entranced by the way its wings beat against the night air.

"Just a letter for Daddy," she says after a long pause. "I was thinking about coming back to sketch owls, though. I do love owls."

"Can I join?" he asks.

Fifteen minutes later, they're seated (Dean _Tergeo_ 'd the floor in a circle around them, and Luna conjured cushions, patterned with ladybugs) and sketching, Luna with her enchanted colored pencils, Dean with his Muggle charcoals.

"Swap?" she asks, after a bit, and so Dean's picture is half black-and-white, half color; half still, half moving.

"Well," Luna says, tilting her head to look at her own, similar drawing, "it's an interesting effect, isn't it?"

"But not really a good one," Dean says.

"Oh, I don't know," Luna says. "It's not very pretty, perhaps, but it's very powerful, isn't it? Half moving, flying free, half trapped and still.

"You know," she says abruptly, "I think when school is over I'm going to join Daddy on his hunts. I think I'd like to get out for a bit, see the world. What about you, Dean?"

"I've seen enough for now," Dean says. "I'll -- well, I don't know. I'll see."

\-----

Ravenclaw wins the Quidditch Cup that year, in a narrow defeat of Slytherin. Luna wears her eagle hat to breakfast the next morning, and when a few first years laugh, Dean and Neville tell them off.

"She fought in the battle," Ginny adds, and that shuts them right up; the battle at Hogwarts (the Battle of Hogwarts) is already the stuff of legend, its victors already heroes.

They sit their N.E.W.T.S in the spring, and Dean walks out of Defense Against the Dark Arts knowing he's gotten an O -- half the practical was telling the examiner about his work at the battle. He's feeling good about Charms, too, and even Transfiguration, and thinking that coming back this year would be worth it even if he bombs them all (well, not Defense Against the Dark Arts; he'd never live it down if he failed that), when he spots Luna, walking out of hers.

"That was easier than I thought it would be," she says cheerfully. "He hardly had me do anything -- just a Patronus, and telling him about last year."

"Same for me," Dean says, and then, "want to go sketching, at the lake?"

"Oh, Dean, I'd love to, but I've got Care of Magical Creatures tomorrow, and I really need to study. Tomorrow, after I'm done?"

The next afternoon, as they sketch the lake at sunset, Luna tells him she's leaving in two weeks. "I don't know how long I'll be gone," she says. "However long it takes to find and document the Snorkack, I suppose. What about you, Dean?"

Dean had been offered a job by George Weasley, who wants him to put his artistic talent to use, designing packaging and adverts for Weasleys' Wizard Wheezes, and Dean accepted, relieved to have a reason to settle down in London, and looking forward to life at the joke shop. Neville will be off to South America on some sort of plant expedition, and Seamus is in Ireland, working for and traveling with the Kestrels. Dean realizes that travel means something entirely different to wizards, that distance is nothing when you can Apparate, but still. Right now, he wants to be in one place and stay there.

"Will you write me?" Luna asks. "I expect working at the joke shop will be very entertaining."

"Of course!" Dean says, smiling at Luna, who seems to glow faintly in golden sun. "And you have to write me -- I want to hear all about the Snorkack."

"Ooh, of course," she says, smiling. "I'd love that."

\-----

Life at the joke shop is hardly the quiet life, but it's fun and challenging and it never feels like work. Good boss, good work, good money, and frequent explosions. He visits his family every week, and the Burrow about twice a month. He buys season Quidditch tickets with George, Lee, Harry, Ginny, and Ron. He writes to Seamus (with the Kestrels on a goodwill tour to Asia), Neville (happy and muddy in the Amazon) and Luna (in eastern Russia and, she tells him, hot on the trail). He misses all of them something fierce, and begins to think about travel himself; their letters fill him with longing for places he's never been.

He is somewhat surprised to find that he looks forward to Luna's letters the most -- they're long and rambly, with many non-sequiturs and odd stories from her childhood, and countless illustrations in the margins. She always asks questions about what he's doing, and closes by hoping he'll write soon. Once, she writes, _Your letters are my favorite to get, Dean. You always have such interesting things to say, and I feel like I can tell you anything, and you'll never laugh at me. And your drawings are so wonderful. You're like the exact opposite of Loser's Lurgy,_ and Dean thinks that's the nicest thing anyone's ever said to him.

He paints the wall in his living room with a mural of Hogwarts at night, and all the people he loves spread out across the grounds. The Weasleys, Seamus, and Harry are flying across the Quidditch pitch, Neville's tending plants at the greenhouse, Hagrid's working in his garden. At the lake's edge, kneeling to look at (and, he likes to think, speak to) the giant squid, he draws Luna. Leaning against a tree a few feet away, he draws himself, watching her.

\-----

It doesn't make the cover of the _Daily Prophet_. It doesn't even make the front section. But in section four, on the back page, Dean spots a small story confirming the existence of the Crumple-Horned Snorkack, spotted by editor and amateur naturalist Xenophilius Lovegood and his daughter, Luna, in Latvia.

Dean smiles so hard his face hurts, and he clips the article and pins it to his bulletin board (after making a copy to send to Luna, of course). It goes next to the birthday cards his sisters sent, his Quidditch tickets, a Kestrels sign, an invite to a party, a map charting Luna's progress, and all the drawings she's sent him, plus that horrible old sketch of the owl. There's also a brochure from the travel shop across Diagon Alley -- he's been feeling itchy and restless lately, he's got loads of vacation time saved up at the shop, and, well, his friends are always telling him to come visit, wherever they are.

She arrives on his doorstep eight days later, exalted. She twirls around the room, waving the latest edition of _The Quibbler_ , full of photographs and her own drawings of the Snorkack.

She stops, mid-twirl, as she sees the mural. "Oh, Dean," she says softly. "You drew me with the squid."

"Yeah," he says, rubbing the back of his head and shifting from foot to foot, suddenly nervous.

"I love the giant squid!" she says, her smile as wide as he's ever seen it. "He's so friendly." Then she holds out her hand to Dean. "I'm going to start looking for heliopaths next," she says, "but not for a while. I'd like to stay, a bit."

Dean reaches out, takes her hand. "I might be ready for an adventure myself, in a while."

**Author's Note:**

> Feedback/con crit greatly appreciated.


End file.
